WordPress Theme Update & Maintenance: 13 Best Practices

Keeping your WordPress theme updated is crucial for maintaining a secure, fast, and visually appealing website. Here are the key best practices:

Before Updating:

Back up your site to prevent data loss
Use a staging site to test updates safely
Check theme and WordPress compatibility to avoid conflicts

Update Process:

Use child themes to preserve customizations
Utilize code snippet plugins to manage custom code easily
Consider automatic updates for improved security and convenience
Manually update for more control and flexibility
Use FTP for updating sites with extensive customizations

After Updating:

Restore any lost customizations from backups or re-apply custom code
Thoroughly test functionality, appearance, performance, and SEO
Maintain a changelog to track changes and fixes

Ongoing Maintenance:

Perform regular security scans and performance checks
Optimize database and media files for better performance

By following these practices, you’ll ensure your WordPress site remains secure, fast, and user-friendly with minimal disruptions.

1. Back Up Before Updating

Creating a backup of your WordPress site before updating your theme is crucial. This step prevents data loss and downtime if something goes wrong during the update process.

Hosting with Automatic Backups

Some hosting providers offer automatic backups as part of their services. This ensures your site is backed up regularly without manual effort. Popular hosting providers with automatic backups include:

Hosting Provider	Automatic Backups
10Web	✓
WP Engine	✓
Kinsta	✓

With these providers, you can restore your site with a single click if an issue occurs.

Backup Plugins

If your hosting provider doesn’t offer automatic backups, you can use backup plugins to create site backups. Popular backup plugins include:

These plugins allow you to schedule automatic backups, stored locally or in the cloud. They also provide easy restore options if something goes wrong.

2. Update During Low Traffic Periods

Updating your WordPress theme when your site has fewer visitors helps minimize disruptions. To find the best times, use a tool like Google Analytics to see when your site gets the least traffic.

Identifying Low Traffic Times

Google Analytics shows you data on your site’s traffic patterns. Look for the days and hours when your site has the fewest visitors. These are the ideal times to schedule theme updates.

For example, if your analytics show that Tuesdays and Thursdays between 2 am and 4 am have the lowest traffic, you can update your theme during those hours. This way, you can keep your site accessible while reducing the chances of issues affecting many users.

Day	Time	Traffic Level
Tuesday	2 am – 4 am	Lowest
Thursday	2 am – 4 am	Lowest

By updating during these low traffic periods, you can:

Minimize disruptions for visitors
Reduce the impact if any problems occur
Keep your site running smoothly

3. Use a Staging Site

Before updating your WordPress theme on your live site, it’s wise to test the changes first. This is where a staging site comes in handy. A staging site is a clone of your live site where you can safely test theme updates, plugins, and other changes without affecting your live site’s performance or user experience.

Setting Up a Staging Site

To set up a staging site, you can:

Use a web host that offers a one-click staging environment
Use a WordPress plugin like WP Staging or Duplicator
Manually clone your live site and set up a new WordPress installation

Here are the basic steps to set up a staging site:

Create a subdomain or a new domain for your staging site
Clone your live site’s files and database to the staging site
Update the WordPress configuration to point to the staging site’s database
Install any necessary plugins or themes

Testing on the Staging Site

Once your staging site is set up, you can test your theme updates, plugins, and other changes without affecting your live site. Here are some things to test:

Theme Updates: Test the updated theme to ensure it doesn’t break any functionality or cause layout issues
Plugin Updates: Test plugin updates to ensure they don’t conflict with other plugins or the theme
Custom Code: Test any custom code changes to ensure they don’t break the site
Performance: Test the site’s performance to ensure it doesn’t slow down or cause any issues

Testing Area	What to Check
Theme Updates	Functionality, Layout
Plugin Updates	Conflicts, Compatibility
Custom Code	Site Breakage
Performance	Site Speed, Issues

4. Check Theme and WordPress Compatibility

Before updating your WordPress theme, it’s crucial to ensure the new theme version works well with your current WordPress installation. This prevents potential issues or conflicts after the update.

To check compatibility, you can:

Review the theme’s documentation or changelog for compatibility details
Contact the theme’s support team to confirm compatibility
Test the updated theme on a staging site with your WordPress version

Skipping this step could lead to problems like:

Broken layouts or missing features
Conflicts with plugins or other themes
Security vulnerabilities

By verifying compatibility, you can ensure a smooth update process.

Compatibility Check	Purpose
Theme Documentation	Find compatibility information
Theme Support	Get confirmation from experts
Staging Site Testing	Identify any issues before updating live site

5. Use Child Themes

Using child themes is an important step in maintaining and updating your WordPress theme. A child theme allows you to customize your theme without modifying the parent theme’s files. This way, your customizations are preserved when you update the parent theme.

Benefits of Child Themes

Using a child theme offers several advantages:

Safety and Updates: Child themes keep your customizations separate from the parent theme, ensuring that updates to the parent theme don’t overwrite your changes.
Efficient Development: Child themes speed up the development process by allowing you to build upon the existing code and design elements of the parent theme.
Flexibility: Child themes provide a safe environment for experimenting with new design elements, features, or code changes without affecting the main site.
Reusability: Child themes enable you to maintain a consistent look and feel across multiple WordPress designs using a single parent theme.

Creating a Child Theme

To create a child theme, follow these steps:

Create a New Folder: Create a new folder in your WordPress themes directory (e.g., wp-content/themes/) and give it a unique name (e.g., my-child-theme).
Create a style.css File: Inside the new folder, create a style.css file and add the following code:

/*
Theme Name:   My Child Theme
Theme URI:   https://example.com/my-child-theme
Version:      1.0
Author:       Your Name
Author URI:   https://example.com
*/

Create a functions.php File: Create a functions.php file in the child theme folder and add any custom code or functions you want to use.
Activate the Child Theme: Go to your WordPress dashboard, navigate to Appearance > Themes, and activate your child theme.

Step	Description
1. Create Folder	Create a new folder for your child theme in the WordPress themes directory.
2. Create `style.css`	Add a `style.css` file with basic theme information.
3. Create `functions.php`	Add a `functions.php` file for custom code and functions.
4. Activate Theme	Activate the child theme in the WordPress dashboard.

6. Use Code Snippet Plugins

Code snippet plugins allow you to add custom code to your WordPress site without modifying the theme files. This way, your customizations remain intact when you update the theme.

Popular Code Snippet Plugins

Here are some popular code snippet plugins for WordPress:

WPCode: A user-friendly plugin with over 2 million active installations. It simplifies adding codes like Google Analytics, custom CSS, and Facebook Pixel.
Code Snippets: A powerful plugin that lets you add custom functionalities without editing the functions.php file or installing multiple plugins.
Header Footer Code Manager: Allows you to add custom code snippets to your site’s header and footer areas.

Benefits of Using Code Snippet Plugins

Using a code snippet plugin offers several advantages:

Easy Management: Provides a centralized interface for managing all your custom code snippets.
Safety: Prevents modifying your theme’s files, ensuring your customizations remain after updates.
Flexibility: Offers conditional logic and code priority support, allowing you to customize code snippets as needed.

Plugin	Description
WPCode	User-friendly interface for adding codes like Google Analytics, custom CSS, and Facebook Pixel.
Code Snippets	Add custom functionalities without editing `functions.php` or installing multiple plugins.
Header Footer Code Manager	Add custom code snippets to your site’s header and footer areas.

Benefit	Description
Easy Management	Centralized interface for managing custom code snippets.
Safety	Prevents modifying theme files, preserving customizations after updates.
Flexibility	Offers conditional logic and code priority support for customizing snippets.

7. Automatic Updates: Pros and Cons

Enabling Automatic Updates

To enable automatic updates in WordPress:

Go to Dashboard > Updates Options.
Choose the Disable all updates option. Note: It’s not recommended to disable all updates. Instead, explore each option like WordPress core updates, Plugin updates, and Theme updates, and configure each one accordingly.

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Improved security	Potential unexpected issues
Convenience	Customizations may be overwritten
Regular updates	Less control over update timing

Automatic updates can have both advantages and disadvantages. On the positive side, they help keep your site secure and up-to-date, which is crucial for performance and security. However, they can also lead to unexpected problems, overwrite customizations, and limit your control over when updates occur. It’s important to weigh these pros and cons before deciding whether to enable automatic updates for your theme.

8. Manual Theme Update Process

Manually updating your WordPress theme gives you more control over the process. This approach is ideal for sites with customizations or critical functions that cannot be disrupted.

Steps to Update Manually

To manually update your WordPress theme, follow these steps:

Back Up Your Site: Create a full backup of your site files and database before updating. This allows you to restore your site if anything goes wrong.
Download the Updated Theme: Visit the theme developer’s website or the WordPress theme repository to download the latest version of your theme.
Extract Theme Files: Unzip the downloaded theme files to a local folder on your computer.
Upload New Theme Files: Using an FTP client or file manager, upload the new theme files to your site’s wp-content/themes directory, overwriting the existing files.
Test the Updated Theme: Activate the updated theme and thoroughly test your site to ensure everything works as expected.
Address Any Issues: If you encounter problems or errors, troubleshoot and resolve them before making the updated theme live.

Benefits of Manual Updates

Manually updating your theme offers several advantages:

Benefit	Description
Control	You decide when to apply updates, allowing time for testing.
Customization Preservation	Your customizations remain intact until you’re ready to update.
Minimal Disruption	You can update during low-traffic periods to minimize impact.

While manual updates require more effort, they provide greater control and flexibility, ensuring a smooth transition to the updated theme.

9. Using FTP to Update Your Theme

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a reliable way to update your WordPress theme. This method is useful if you prefer a hands-on approach or need to update themes on sites with customizations.

Steps to Update via FTP

Download the new theme version: Visit the theme developer’s website or the WordPress theme repository and download the latest theme files.
Extract the files: Unzip the downloaded theme files to a folder on your computer.
Connect to your site via FTP: Use an FTP client (like FileZilla) to connect to your website’s server. Enter your FTP credentials (hostname, username, and password).
Navigate to the theme directory: In the FTP client, go to the wp-content/themes directory where your theme files are stored.
Upload the new files: Select the extracted theme files from your computer and upload them to the wp-content/themes directory, overwriting the existing files.
Test the updated theme: Activate the updated theme and thoroughly test your site to ensure everything works correctly.

10. Restoring Customizations

When updating your WordPress theme, there’s a risk of losing any custom changes you’ve made to your site. To avoid this, it’s crucial to have a plan to restore those customizations after the update.

Restoring from Backups

If you’ve been regularly backing up your site, you can restore your customizations from those backups. This is the easiest way to get your site back to its pre-update state. Simply restore the backup, and your custom changes should be reapplied. Make sure to thoroughly test your site after restoring to ensure everything is working correctly.

Re-Applying Custom Code

If you don’t have a backup or prefer a more hands-on approach, you can re-apply your custom code to the new theme files. This requires some technical knowledge, but it’s a viable option. Start by identifying the custom code you’ve added to your theme files, such as functions.php or style.css. Then, copy and paste that code into the corresponding files in the new theme. Be careful not to overwrite any existing code, and test your site thoroughly after re-applying the custom code.

Method	Description
Restoring from Backups	Use your site backups to restore customizations after the update.
Re-Applying Custom Code	Manually copy and paste your custom code into the new theme files.

1. Restoring from Backups

Easiest method if you have regular site backups
Restores your site to its pre-update state, including customizations
Test thoroughly after restoring to ensure everything works correctly

2. Re-Applying Custom Code

Requires some technical knowledge
Identify custom code in old theme files (e.g., functions.php, style.css)
Copy and paste the custom code into the corresponding new theme files
Be careful not to overwrite existing code
Test thoroughly after re-applying custom code

11. Post-Update Testing

After updating your WordPress theme, it’s crucial to test your site thoroughly to identify and fix any potential issues. Follow this checklist to ensure everything works correctly:

Functionality Testing

Check that all plugins are working properly
Test contact forms, payment gateways, and other interactive elements
Verify that all pages and posts display correctly

Appearance Testing

Inspect the site’s layout, design, and styling
Check for broken images or missing assets
Ensure the site is responsive on different devices and browsers

Performance Testing

Monitor the site’s loading speed and optimize if needed
Check for errors or warnings in the browser console
Verify that the site is secure and has an SSL certificate

SEO Testing

Check that meta titles, descriptions, and keywords are intact
Verify the site’s structure and hierarchy
Test that the site is indexing correctly in search engines

12. Keeping a Changelog

Maintaining a changelog is an essential practice when updating and maintaining your WordPress theme. A changelog is a record of all changes made to the theme, including bug fixes, new features, and updates to existing functionality.

Benefits of a Changelog

A changelog offers several advantages:

For Theme Authors: It helps track changes and updates, making it easier to identify and fix bugs, and ensure new features are properly implemented.
For Reviewers: It provides a clear understanding of the changes made, simplifying the assessment of updates and ensuring they meet required standards.
For Users: It offers transparency into the changes made to the theme, helping users decide whether to update or not.

Creating a Changelog

Creating a changelog is straightforward. Theme authors can maintain a separate file, such as changelog.txt, that lists all changes made to the theme. Each entry should include:

Version number
Date
Brief description of the changes

For example:

== Version 1.1 ==
* Fixed bug in navigation menu
* Updated styles for better responsiveness

== Version 1.0 ==
* Initial release of the theme

Benefit	Description
Theme Authors	Track changes, identify bugs, ensure proper implementation
Reviewers	Understand updates, assess compliance with standards
Users	Transparency into changes, informed decision on updating

Entry	Description
Version Number	Identifies the theme version
Date	When the changes were made
Description	Brief explanation of the changes

13. Regular Maintenance

Keeping your WordPress site in top shape requires regular maintenance. This helps ensure security, optimal performance, and a smooth user experience. Beyond updating your theme, here are some routine activities to maintain site health:

Security and Performance Checks

Regularly scan for security threats and monitor performance. Use tools like:

Wordfence, MalCare, or iThemes Security to scan for malware, viruses, and other security risks.
GTmetrix, Pingdom, or Google PageSpeed Insights to identify areas for speed optimization.

Database and Media Optimization

Optimize your database and media files for better performance:

Clean up unnecessary data like post revisions, spam comments, and transient options using plugins like WP-Optimize or WP-Sweep.
Compress images and media files with plugins like EWWW Image Optimizer or ShortPixel Image Optimizer to reduce file sizes and improve page load times.

Task	Tools
Security Scans	Wordfence, MalCare, iThemes Security
Performance Monitoring	GTmetrix, Pingdom, Google PageSpeed Insights
Database Cleanup	WP-Optimize, WP-Sweep
Image Optimization	EWWW Image Optimizer, ShortPixel Image Optimizer

1. Security Scans

Scan for malware, viruses, and other security threats
Use tools like Wordfence, MalCare, or iThemes Security

2. Performance Monitoring

Identify areas for speed optimization
Use tools like GTmetrix, Pingdom, or Google PageSpeed Insights

3. Database Cleanup

Remove unnecessary data like post revisions, spam comments, and transient options
Use plugins like WP-Optimize or WP-Sweep

4. Image Optimization

Compress images and media files to reduce file sizes
Use plugins like EWWW Image Optimizer or ShortPixel Image Optimizer
Improves page load times

Conclusion

Keeping your WordPress theme updated and well-maintained is an ongoing process that requires careful attention. By following these 13 best practices, you’ll ensure your website remains secure, fast, and user-friendly.

Regular theme updates are essential, not a one-time task. Backing up your site, updating during low-traffic periods, using a staging site, and checking theme and WordPress compatibility are crucial steps to keep your website running smoothly.

Additionally, using child themes, code snippet plugins, and automatic updates can streamline the update process. Testing your site after updates and maintaining a changelog will help identify and address any issues.

Best Practice	Purpose
Backups	Prevent data loss and downtime
Low-Traffic Updates	Minimize disruptions
Staging Site	Test updates safely
Compatibility Checks	Avoid conflicts and issues
Child Themes	Preserve customizations
Code Snippet Plugins	Manage custom code easily
Automatic Updates	Improve security and convenience
Manual Updates	Maintain control and flexibility
FTP Updates	Update sites with customizations
Restore Customizations	Retain custom changes after updates
Post-Update Testing	Identify and fix potential problems
Changelog	Track changes and updates
Regular Maintenance	Ensure security and performance

1. Backups

Create full site backups before updating
Prevent data loss if issues occur

2. Low-Traffic Updates

Update during periods with fewer visitors
Minimize disruptions for users

3. Staging Site

Test updates on a clone of your live site
Identify potential problems before going live

4. Compatibility Checks

Ensure the new theme version works with your WordPress installation
Avoid conflicts, broken layouts, or missing features

5. Child Themes

Customize your theme without modifying the parent theme’s files
Preserve customizations when updating the parent theme

6. Code Snippet Plugins

Add custom code without editing theme files
Customizations remain intact after updates

7. Automatic Updates

Keep your site secure and up-to-date
Convenient, but less control over timing

8. Manual Updates

More control over when to apply updates
Time for testing and minimal disruption

9. FTP Updates

Hands-on approach for updating themes
Useful for sites with customizations

10. Restore Customizations

Use backups or re-apply custom code after updates
Retain your site’s unique changes

11. Post-Update Testing

Check functionality, appearance, performance, and SEO
Identify and fix any issues

12. Changelog

Record of all changes made to the theme
Helps track updates and fixes

13. Regular Maintenance

Perform security scans and performance checks
Optimize database and media files

FAQs

What should I do before updating a WordPress theme?

Before updating your WordPress theme, follow these steps:

Check for updates on your WordPress dashboard. You’ll see a notification when a new version is available.
Review the changelog to understand what’s included in the update, such as new features, bug fixes, and compatibility changes.
Create a full backup of your website files and database. This protects your data if any issues occur during the update.
Test updates on a staging site (recommended for major updates). This allows you to identify and resolve potential conflicts before updating your live site.

What’s the best way to update a WordPress theme?

The recommended way to update a WordPress theme is through the admin dashboard:

Go to Appearance → Themes.
If an update is available for your active theme, you’ll see an update notification.
Click Update Now to download and install the latest version.

Alternatively, you can update themes from the Dashboard → Updates page:

Locate the Themes section and select the theme(s) you want to update.
Click Update Themes to install the latest versions.

For themes with extensive customizations, you may need to update manually via FTP to preserve your changes.